Peter Corkeron

Griffith University · Centre for Planetary Health and Food Security

The world is currently facing a biodiversity crisis and for many species, this is exacerbated by historic exploitation. Monitoring programs provide an integral tool to understand changes in abundance and the impact of threats informing conservation actions. However, measures of absolute abundance for management can be misleading, particularly when...

North Atlantic right whales are Critically Endangered and declining, with entanglements in fishing gear a key contributor to their decline. Entanglement events can result in lethal and sub-lethal (i.e. increased energetic demands and reduced foraging ability) impacts, with the latter influencing critical life-history states, such as reproduction. U...

Without substantive reduction in anthropogenic trauma, Critically Endangered North Atlantic right whales Eubalaena glacialis (NARWs) risk extinction. Decreasing population size is attributable to 2 main issues besides vessel collision: entanglement in fishing gear and changes in food availability due to ecosystem changes in the face of climate disr...

No PDF available ABSTRACT Passive acoustic monitoring (PAM) is an efficient method for large-scale marine mammal monitoring. PAM technologies concurrently sample multiple soniferous marine mammal species, and when coupled with verified detectors, provide information that can be used to evaluate community composition. This analysis used data collec...

Abundance and population trends of Critically Endangered North Atlantic right whales (Eubalaena glacialis, NARW) have been estimated using mark-recapture analyses where an individual’s state is based upon set delineations of age, using historical estimates of age at first reproduction. Here we assigned individual females to states based upon their...

The Critically Endangered status of North Atlantic right whales Eubalaena glacialis (NARWs) warrants the development of new, less invasive technology to monitor the health of individuals. Combined with advancements in remotely piloted aircraft systems (RPAS, commonly ‘drones’), infrared thermography (IRT) is being increasingly used to detect and co...

People have held marine mammals captive for public display for centuries, and the history of peoples’ engagement with free-ranging marine mammals has an even longer history. Currently, most concern is expressed over keeping cetaceans captive, rather than other marine mammals, so cetaceans are the focus of this chapter. Conservation and animal welfa...

The complete collection of papers from the research topic "Whale-watching impacts: science, human dimensions and management"

Is the increased use in wildlife conservation of techniques derived from military and security services appropriate? One aspect of this issue that remains poorly considered is whether all actors engaged in conservation projects that have a security orientation are engaged primarily in conservation. Western intelligence agencies are known to have us...

Welfare assessments have been largely successful in improving management and quality of life for animals in human care. This has prompted an increased interest in their use for free-ranging wild animals to assess health, environment, and human-induced impacts that influence policy decisions. The North Atlantic Right Whale (NARW, Eubalaena glacialis...

North Atlantic right whales Eubalaena glacialis are most commonly observed along the eastern seaboard of North America; however, their distribution and occupancy patterns have become less predictable in the last decade. This study explores the individual right whales captured photographically from both dedicated and opportunistic sources from 2015...

Whale watching, the activity of sighting cetaceans in their natural habitat, and the basis of tourism industries worldwide, has been growing in the last decades. Although the growth of the industry has been beneficial in economic terms for the communities in countries where the activity takes place (Guidino et al., 2020), there is a great concern a...

In habitat modelling, environmental variables are assumed to be proxies of lower trophic levels distribution and by extension, of marine top predator distributions. More proximal variables, such as potential prey fields, could refine relationships between top predator distributions and their environment. In situ data on prey distributions are not a...

Mitigation of threats posed to marine mammals by human activities can be greatly improved with a better understanding of animal occurrence in real time. Recent advancements have enabled low-power passive acoustic systems to be integrated into long-endurance autonomous platforms for persistent near real-time monitoring of marine mammals via the soun...

Six baleen whale species are found in the temperate western North Atlantic Ocean, with limited information existing on the distribution and movement patterns for most. There is mounting evidence of distributional shifts in many species, including marine mammals, likely because of climate‐driven changes in ocean temperature and circulation. Previous...

The North Atlantic right whale Eubalaena glacialis (NARW), currently numbering <410 individuals, is on a trajectory to extinction. Although direct mortality from ship strikes and fishing gear entanglements remain the major threats to the population, reproductive failure, resulting from poor body condition and sublethal chronic entanglement stress,...

Mitigating the effects of human activities on marine mammals often depends on monitoring animal occurrence over long time scales, large spatial scales, and in real time. Passive acoustics, particularly from autonomous vehicles, is a promising approach to meeting this need. We have previously developed the capability to record, detect, classify, and...

Effective conservation of the endangered North Atlantic humpback whale (Megaptera novaeangliae) which breeds in the eastern North Atlantic around the Cape Verde Islands off West Africa requires information about their spatio-temporal distribution, population size, and migratory patterns. Understanding temporal distribution is particularly important...

The distributions of migratory species in the ocean span local, national and international jurisdictions. Across these ecologically interconnected regions, migratory marine species interact with anthropogenic stressors throughout their lives. Migratory connectivity, the geographical linking of individuals and populations throughout their migratory...

Assessing marine soundscapes provides an understanding of the biological, geological and anthropogenic composition of a habitat, including species diversity, community composition, and human impacts. For this study, nine acoustic recorders were deployed between December 2016 and June 2017 off six Caribbean islands in several Marine Parks: the Domin...

Managing interactions between human activities and marine mammals often relies on an understanding of the real‐time distribution or occurrence of animals. Visual surveys typically cannot provide persistent monitoring because of expense and weather limitations, and while passive acoustic recorders can monitor continuously, the data they collect are...

Aim Deep‐diving cetaceans are oceanic species exposed to multiple anthropogenic pressures including high intensity underwater noise, and knowledge of their distribution is crucial to manage their conservation. Due to intrinsic low densities, wide distribution ranges and limited presence at the sea surface, these species are rarely sighted. Pooling...

North Atlantic right whales (NARW), Eubalaena glacialis, were nearly exterminated by historical whaling. Their abundance slowly increased up until 2010, to a maximum of fewer than 500 whales, and since then they have been in decline. We assessed the extent to which the relatively slow increase demonstrated by NARW was intrinsic, and how much could...

In habitat modelling, environmental variables (e.g. depth, slope, sea surface temperature) are assumed to be good indicators of lower trophic levels distribution and thus good proxies of top predator’s distribution. However, as marine top predators are supposed to be mostly sensitive to prey abundance, the use of more proximal variables, such as pr...

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The use of commercial echosounders for scientific and industrial purposes is steadily increasing. In addition to traditional navigational and fisheries uses, commercial sonars are used extensively for oceanographic research, benthic habitat mapping, geophysical exploration, and ecosystem studies. Little is known about the effects of these acoustic...

In September 2016, the West Indies distinct population segment (DPS) of humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae), was delisted under the US Endangered Species Act. This DPS covers all of the Caribbean breeding grounds. However, growing evidence suggests the West Indies DPS contains more than one breeding population. In response to these changes in...

Knowledge on the distribution patterns of deep-diving cetaceans, here beaked whales and sperm whales, is limited. They are oceanic species threatened by anthropogenic activities which produce high intensity submarine noise. To mitigate the impact of these activities, good knowledge on their distribution is crucial. However, due to their low densiti...

Given new distribution patterns of the endangered North Atlantic right whale (NARW; Eubalaena glacialis) population in recent years, an improved understanding of spatio-temporal movements are imperative for the conservation of this species. While so far visual data have provided most information on NARW movements, passive acoustic monitoring (PAM)...

North Atlantic right whales (Eubalaena glacialis Müller 1776) present an interesting problem for abundance and trend estimation in marine wildlife conservation. They are long lived, individually identifiable, highly mobile, and one of the rarest of cetaceans. Individuals are annually resighted at different rates, primarily due to varying stay durat...

Beaked whales are cryptic, deep-diving odontocetes that are sensitive to anthropogenic noise. While their behavioral responses to navy sonar have been the subject of extensive study, little effort has been expended to evaluate their responses to other types of acoustic signals, such as fisheries echosounders. From 1 July to 10 August 2013, the Nort...

Immunoassay of hormone metabolites extracted from faecal samples of free-ranging large whales can provide biologically relevant information on reproductive state and stress responses. North Atlantic right whales (Eubalaena glacialis Müller 1776) are an ideal model for testing the conservation value of faecal metabolites. Almost all North Atlantic r...

Large whales are frequently entangled in fishing gear and sometimes swim while carrying gear for days to years. Entangled whales are subject to additional drag forces requiring increased thrust power and energy expenditure over time. To classify entanglement cases and aid potential disentanglement efforts, it is useful to know how long an entangled...

Individuals store energy to balance deficits in natural cycles; however, unnatural events can also lead to unbalanced energy budgets. Entanglement in fishing gear is one example of an unnatural but relatively common circumstance that imposes energetic demands of a similar order of magnitude and duration of life-history events such as migration and...

Lethal and sublethal fishing gear entanglement is pervasive in North Atlantic right whales (Eubalaena glacialis). Entanglement can lead to direct injury and is likely to incur substantial energetic costs. This study (1) evaluates drag characteristics of entangled right whales, (2) contextualizes gear drag measurements for individual whales, and (3)...

Marine tourism is a new frontier of late-capitalist transformation, generating more global revenue than aquaculture and fisheries combined. This transformation created whale-watching, a commercial tourism form that, despite recent critiques, has been accepted as non-consumptive activity. This paper uses four academic discourses to critique whale wa...

Conducted 63 surveys from November 2013 – July 2014 (no surveys in Aug-Oct 2013 or Feb-Mar 2014) Surveyed 14,090 nautical miles of trackline Observed right whales on 23 surveys (28 including off watch sightings) Sighted 269 right whales (including repeats of individuals) Documented maximum aggregation size of 33

Passive acoustics provide a flexible tool for developing understanding of the ecology and behavior of vocalizing marine animals. Yet despite a robust capacity for detecting species presence, our ability to estimate population abundance from acoustics still remains poor. Critically, abundance estimates are precisely what conservation practitioners a...

Both historic whaling data and recent field research confirm the presence of a resident sub-population of humpback whales in the western Arabian Sea (Breeding Stock X). This endangered population is geographically, demographically and genetically isolated and is thought to have been greatly reduced in size by Soviet whaling in 1966; it likely remai...

The 2010 report of the Scientific Committee (IWC/62/Rep 1) expressed grave concern for the resident ‘Arabian Sea humpback whale population’. The Committee made strong recommendations for additional research to monitor the status of this Endangered population which has a restricted range, is reproductively isolated, has a very small population size...

Ship strikes are a major cause of anthropogenic mortality for the endangered North Atlantic right whale Eubalaena glacialis. Year-round data on animal presence are critical to man- aging ship strike mortality. Marine autonomous recording units were deployed throughout the Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary (SBNMS, Massachusetts Bay, USA) for...

Baleen whales (Mysticeti) communicate using low-frequency acoustic signals. These long-wavelength sounds can be detected over hundreds of kilometres, potentially allowing contact over large distances. Low-frequency noise from large ships (20-200 Hz) overlaps acoustic signals used by baleen whales, and increased levels of underwater noise have been...

The effect of underwater anthropogenic sound on marine mammals is of increasing concern. Here we show that humpback whale (Megaptera novaeangliae) song in the Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary (SBNMS) was reduced, concurrent with transmissions of an Ocean Acoustic Waveguide Remote Sensing (OAWRS) experiment approximately 200 km away. We det...

Time series of hourly detections of OAWRS signals recorded on MARUs deployed in the Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary in September/October 2006. (TIF)

Time series of minutes with humpback whale song detections in September/October 2006. Plot is split in three panels representing (a) ‘Before’, (b) ‘During’ and (c) ‘After’ periods. Right y-axis displays date. (TIF)

Time series of minutes with humpback whale song detections in September/October 2008. Plot is split in three panels representing time periods equal to (a) ‘Before’, (b) ‘During’ and (c) ‘After’ periods in 2006. Right y-axis displays date. (TIF)

Time series of minutes with humpback whale song detections in September/October 2009. Plot is split in three panels representing time periods equal to (a) ‘Before’, (b) ‘During’ and (c) ‘After’ periods in 2006. Right y-axis displays date. (TIF)

(a) Plot of residuals of quasi-poisson GLM model for OAWRS data. (b) Temporal autocorrelation plot based on residuals of quasi-poisson GLM model used in OAWRS analysis. Blue dashed line indicates approximate 95% confidence interval. (TIF)

North Atlantic Right Whale Sighting Survey (NARWSS) The North Atlantic Right Whale Sighting Survey (NARWSS) is a NOAA Fisheries program which locates and records the seasonal distribution of North Atlantic right whales (Eubalaena glacialis) off the northeastern coast of the United States. NARWSS flights conducted in 2011 followed systematic track...

Tradition is commonly cited in arguments justifying the continuation of commercial whaling (e.g. Morishita, 2006). Rather than explore the meaning and context of whaling traditions, I shall focus on the more general question of how we perceive animals, and what those perceptions mean for how people relate to animals. Then I shall describe the recen...

Dolphins live in complex social systems with a wide variety of grouping and association patterns. Understanding the spatiotemporal variation of these associations (fissionefusion dynamics) is necessary to investigate the underlying factors and mechanisms shaping mammalian social systems in aquatic environments.We used boat-based surveys, photoident...

Habitat models are tools for understanding the relationship between cetaceans and their environment, from which patterns of the animals space use can be inferred and management strate- gies developed. Can working with space use alone be sufficient for management, when habitat can- not be modeled? Here, we analyzed cetacean sightings data collected...

Background/Question/Methods There are approximately 400 individuals remaining in the population of Northwest Atlantic right whales. These animals are subject to a variety of natural and anthropogenic stressors, the latter of which include ship strikes, entanglements with fishing gear, and exposure to chronic and acute sources of noise. All of thes...

North Atlantic right whales, Eubalaena glacialis, remain endangered, primarily due to excessive anthropogenic mortality. Current management protocols in US waters are triggered by identifying the presence of at least one right whale in a management area. We assessed whether acoustic detection of right whale contact calls can work as an alternative...

Nature-based tourism targeting cetaceans is a billion dollar industry that continues to grow. Therefore, the ecological effects of this industry require investigation. Inshore marine wildlife, such as coastal populations of dolphins that have become tourism targets, is affected by human activities in the coastal zone, and tourism may be an addition...

Although predictable in its areas of occurrence, many aspects of humpback whale migration are still poorly understood. Nuclear DNA analysis has revealed a low level of relatedness among whales using the same migratory corridor, and has shown that closely related individuals tend not to travel in spatial association. Yet it still remains uncertain w...

This chapter discusses if captivity of marine mammals is justified. Human interest in marine mammals was initially based on the commercial value of killing seals and whales for oil, meat, and hides. The larger animals represented a greater profit, so small marine mammals such as dolphins were mostly considered to be pests to fishermen. In developed...

All harp seal populations form breeding aggregations on the Arctic pack ice. However, pack ice conditions vary spatially and temporally among these aggregations with variation in environmental and oceanographic conditions, which may affect the behavioral interactions between mothers and their newborn pups. We investigated the variation in mother-pu...

Scientific whaling is one of the most publicly contentious applications of marine ecological research today. An evaluation of the second phase of Japan's Institute of Cetacean Research (ICR) program in the western North Pacific (JARPN II) is soon to be conducted under the auspices of the Scientific Committee (SC) of the International Whaling Commis...

Some interpretations of ecosystem-based fishery management include culling marine mammals as an integral component. The current Norwegian policy on marine mammal management is one example. Scientific support for this policy includes the Scenario Barents Sea (SBS) models. These modelled interactions between cod, Gadus morhua, herring, Clupea harengu...